JULY 1, 2014: SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON
We had a great lesson with a 25 year old girl named M****. One of her best friends just got back from her mission this past Thursday. Then that RM friend and another sister RM friend came and taught the Restoration to Michelle with us! It was incredible to have 4 "sisters" there all teaching. Michelle prayed at the end and said that she could see the light in all 4 of us and how much this gospel has blessed our lives.
We had another miracle lesson with a potential named S***. She let us right in and loved the part of the Book of Mormon we shared with her and was more than happy to set a return appointment with us. Miracle!
Had another great lesson an African woman named M*** and her daugher J***. They asked all of those perfect questions like How do we know the Book of Mormon is true and How do I feel the Holy Ghost? They ate it all up and are so excited to come to church when they get back from vacation in Georgia.
Had another first lesson with a girl named C***. She has been coming to church with a less active that has recently been coming back. They are living together. But this is C***'s first exposure to religion, and she says she feels herself changing and started reading the Book of Mormon on her own. She is nervous about getting baptized and then messing up, but we are loving sharing the principle of repentance to her. We taught the Restoration and are going back this week to teach more.
Also taught Passion this week who was recently adopted by a member family. She has grown up in a black Pentecostal church so our services are VERY different and boring to her. But she is coming along step by step. I know that she feels pure love from us and from all the members in the ward that have rallied around her. We are working on helping her understand the priesthood. She always gets hung up on the gift of tongues...still working on a good answer for that one.
We had a stake fast for missionary work yesterday. And then had some great sacrament meeting talks on member missionary work. It is cool to see those principles from Power of Everyday Missionaries being applied to the lives of these members. It truly takes a change of heart and a turning of heart of sorts for missionary work to become part of their everyday life.
I have loved continuing to read the Book of Mormon as always. I have about 15 pages left that I will finish up this week. I thought I already had a good enough testimony of the Book before I came on my mission. But it has increased so much in this past year.
Also, Sister Merchant is awesome! She is from Gilbert, Arizona...near Queen Creek if that means anything to anyone. She has red hair and is the 3rd of 7 kids, all with red hair. And she is famous! She and two of her sisters are a country music group called Firefly. Sister Merchant plays the Mandolin (which she has with her) and then another sister plays guitar and another sister plays cello. They have a church music cd which she showed me and they kind of have a nickelcreek sound. But they have another cd! So you should look it up and tell me how it is! They also have music videos (google firefly country music). AND they have performed all over and have opened for country singers like Martina McBride, Leann Rimes, Carrie Underwood and others. AND she knows a lot of the LDS music people...has sung with Alex Boye and others. Sooo she's pretty cool. ANd is going to be even more famous someday and she's my companion! :) I've been telling alll the members about how cool she is and playing them her church cd and Sister Merchant just rolls her eyes at me and is so humble about it. We are doing a musical number together in sacrament meeting in 2 weeks which will be fun, whatever we do! She has been out about 6 months and is more on the quiet side, but is a great missionary and we get along well. She is majoring in Studio Art at BYU.
We are going down to St. Augustine today so Sister Merchant can see it before July comes and they cut our mileage allowance in half.
love you all!
Sister Richardson
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